Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to home automation systems and more specifically to use of scenes in home automation systems.
Background Information
Home automation systems are becoming increasingly popular in both residential and commercial structures. Such systems may be capable of controlling, switching data between, and otherwise interacting with a wide variety of devices, including audio/video devices (A/V) devices, heating ventilation and cooling (HVAC) devices, security devices, energy conservation devices, communications devices, telephony devices, and/or other types of devices. Often, a user indicates desired actions in a home automation system by individually selecting devices and indicating actions they should perform. For example, a user may select a light fixture and indicate that it should be switched on. While this type of control may be adequate for home automation systems that include a relatively limited number of devices, it may prove limiting in systems with large numbers of devices. In such systems, users may desire more complex experiences involving the simultaneous control of many devices in response to a single selection or trigger.
Some systems may allow for the creation of macros or “scenes” that, when activated, can control a collection of devices in a predefined manner. For example, a scene may be programmed for walkup conditions in the morning, and when activated cause the home automation system to raise lights in a bedroom, set background music to a low volume, open shades, turning on a bathroom light, etc. Likewise, scenes may be programmed for other types of experiences.
While the use of scenes may allow for enhanced control in home automation systems, they typically are difficult and time consuming to program in the first place. In some home automation systems, custom code may need to be written to program certain types of scenes. In other home automation systems that provide some sort of scene creation graphical user interface (GUI), a lengthy series of device and corresponding action selections may need to be manually entered to define a scene. A person programming the scene may need to have a detailed understanding of the system configuration, understand each device that should take an action and exactly what that action should be, and then manually enter such information. This may be time consuming and error prone. As a result, many end-users do not create their own scenes, and may instead rely instead upon a limited set of already available scenes (e.g., predefined in the system or programmed by an installer as part of an initial system installation), or fall back upon controlling devices individually.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved techniques that may allow end-users to easily define and activate scenes in home automation systems.